Making a Pond

[Wes Whitmore]

Could you pour in Polyurathane resin into the pond?  You could add food coloring or even paint into it.  The Bondo brand is bluish green already.  It might melt the foam, it might not.  It will dry in under 20 minutes.  It's the same thing that people use on bar tops to make it look like coasters and bottle caps are floating in the top of the bar.  It's the liquid that they use when fiberglassing.

[mistyk11]

FJ&G, those are great pictures! I especially like the real water one...someday I'd like to have a garden train-right now we have nothing but dirt (we live in the desert with NO water...even man made streams don't last, or they attract every snake in the area!) and I have 2 large German Shepherd dogs that chase ANYTHING that moves, including mechanical so the G train will have to wait. Thanks for the info on the Envirotex.

 

Jaabat, thanks for the instructions on creating the waves. We have some joint compound in the garage so perhaps we'll use some of it and try some waves. They sound fairly simple. Besides, I really can't screw it up anymore!

I want to stay with the styrofoam base, which sits on top of the plywood. It's easier and cheaper to replace when we decide to switch layout designs (or when I screw up the layout, like I did with the "pond"=tarpit.

[Jumijo]

Gloss medium is what people use for decoupage. It's a craft store item found with the artist paints. A big bottle of it only cost about $3 bucks at Walmart. Just make sure you get gloss and not matte. Matte is flat! To make the surface uneven, skim coat a layer of joint compound over the styrofoam. Circular swirls all going in the same direction look just like waves. I painted mine, them painted the ripples white. Then covered all with the gloss medium. Incredibly easy to use.

[FJ and G]

try Envirotex from Home Depot

 

 

 

or heck, even glossy paint over plaster works...

 

 

real water sometimes does the trick too...

 

 

[chuck]

Fine Scale Modeler (another excellent Kalmbach publication) has done a number of articles on modeling water.  There are a variety of techniques.  Trying to fill a larger body of "water" is often problematic.  There are often issues with leakage from gaps/holes to soluability/permaability depending on what the "bed" is made out of. 

Some of the nicest lake/pond effects are created by painting the bottom, placing clear plexiglass as the water surface and then using one of the water products to make waves/ripples on the smooth plastic sheet.

[Anonymous]

Whatever you do, don't use plywood as your base. The stuff looks great when you paint and pour, but when it dries it picks up the uneven pattern of the plywood. Use smooth, sanded, HARD wood only or perhaps a plastic material.

[mistyk11]

I used gloss medium for my rivers with excellent results. It's very inexpensive and easy to apply. Just pour it on and brush it where you want. My rivers were jusr paint over styrofoam insulation. See below:

 

 

 

 

 

Those photos look great! What exactly is gloss medium and where can you find it? Also, how do you achieve the rippled water effect? My son keeps wanting something that looks like waves or ripples but I told him I had to master the still water look before I can get fancy with it!

[mistyk11]

Woodland Scenics water materials are water soluable so I don't understand how it could have been absorbed into the styrofoam. How big is the surface area that you're trying to cover?

According to Woodlabd Scenics:

Realistic Water 16 oz.
Use to model still or slow-moving water, such as ponds, rivers, lakes and more. Pour directly from the bottle. Realistic Water is self-leveling. Pour no more than 1/8" deep. Dries clear in approximately 24 hours and the bottle covers an area 17" in diameter when poured to the recommended depth of 1/8". 
 

My guess from your initial statement "...all of the "water" has soaked into the styrofoam board leaving just the painted bottom with a trace of water,"  is that your surface area is larger than 17" in diameter.

This was the kit that came with everything so the bottle of the water wasn't as big as the 16 oz. The total diameter of the pond is maybe 12-14" so it may have been too big for the small bottle. It isn't deep, I only scraped the top layer of the styrofoam off so its not even near 1/8".

I will go on their website and see what other directions they have for water. Like I told my son last night, we could paint a dinosaur black and stick it in the middle of it and have the tar pits! 

[Jumijo]

I used gloss medium for my rivers with excellent results. It's very inexpensive and easy to apply. Just pour it on and brush it where you want. My rivers were jusr paint over styrofoam insulation. See below:

 

 

 

 

 

[Roger Bielen]

Try using water based polyurethane.  It'll be necessary to use several layers, coats, to prevent shrinkage depressions.

[DennisB-1]

Woodland Scenics water materials are water soluable so I don't understand how it could have been absorbed into the styrofoam. How big is the surface area that you're trying to cover?

According to Woodlabd Scenics:

Realistic Water 16 oz.
Use to model still or slow-moving water, such as ponds, rivers, lakes and more. Pour directly from the bottle. Realistic Water is self-leveling. Pour no more than 1/8" deep. Dries clear in approximately 24 hours and the bottle covers an area 17" in diameter when poured to the recommended depth of 1/8". 
 

My guess from your initial statement "...all of the "water" has soaked into the styrofoam board leaving just the painted bottom with a trace of water,"  is that your surface area is larger than 17" in diameter.

[kpolak]

Hi Misty,

I have not used this product, but found some additional information on the Woodland Scenics site.

The 'How-to Demos' say to make the water 1/8-inch deep, and cover the bottom with plastic cloth, and add a layer of flex paste.  It doesn't sound like these were included in your package.

Check out the water prep, and the water how-to demos at woodlandscenics.com

Hope this helps,

Kurt

Hey...Here's something Frank53 hasn't included yet!  With all this 'extra' time on his hands he could include some water....

 

[mistyk11]

No it didn't change the shape of the shoreline or cause any sagging. Maybe I'll try the saran wrap on a spare piece of styrofoam and see what it does.

[JohnT14808]

Boy, who would have thought that the mixture would "soak" into painted foam??!? Did this event change the way your pond looks ( make it saggy, or change the shore line?  I know to work with a 'level' water area, and to color the areas differently so the deep water is black/dark blue and the areas close to the shore are a lighter brownish color ( to signify less depth.)

 I'm not sure about using Saran Wrap ( it sounds like a good idea) but I would mix a very small amount of your next kit and see if the mixture is going to "eat" the saran wrap. How about applying a sealer primer to the foam first, then your pond 'bottom' colors and try again??

[Anonymous]

 While I have sever used this kit, I will offer the suggestion of lining the pond with Seran Wrap. This should not alow the mixture to seep into the styrophome. I bet someone out there has a better idea.

[mistyk11]

I need some assistance with our Pond making....I bought the Woodland Scenics Pond kit, followed the directions like it said but all of the "water" has soaked into the styrofoam board leaving just the painted bottom with a trace of water. I now realize that you can't use it on styrofoam so I now ask for some advice. We are trying to make just a simple little pond. What can we use to line it to keep the "water" from absorbing in the stryofoam? We used the black latex paint first then applied the water after the paint dried. I have to order some more of the water before we can re-do it......